Into the Picture Podcast - Amy Johnson CBE

Amongst the treasures on display from the Amy Johnson collection at Sewerby Hall is her CBE, medal. The award of the CBE or more formerly, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, was established by King George V and it is given to those who are considered to have made a significant achievement for the United Kingdom. Amy Johnson, as the first woman to fly solo to Australia, had done just that.
The medal was presented to Amy in a ceremony at Buckingham palace on 11 August 1930, just a week after she had landed at Croydon Airport on her return from Australia, though for the return journey she opted for a rather more relaxed combination of cruise ship and charter flight. The King chatted to Amy asking about each stage of her flight and after explaining that he had followed her progress with much interest, he wished her well for the future.
From the palace Amy travelled to the private airfield at Stag Lane in North London. This was the main base of the De Haviland Company and the place she had learned to fly, gaining her pilots licence in 1929, and where her flight to Australia had begun just three months earlier on the 4 May. At the airfield she was reunited with “Jason” the Gipsy Moth aircraft in which she had flown her epic journey. With Jason fuelled and prepped she took off for Yorkshire and home. As she flew over Lincolnshire, Amy and Jason were joined by a flight of nine other aeroplanes who escorted her all the way to Hedon aerodrome, where she landed at 4pm.
Thousands of people were waiting to greet her, amongst them the Lord Mayor of Hull, the High Sherriff, her parents and her grandfather. The crowds were keen to see both her and Jason, and the aircraft had to be rapidly placed in a hanger for its own protection. Amy was entertained to tea in the airfield clubhouse before being made a life member of the Hull Aero-club. From the Aerodrome Amy was driven in the Lord Mayors car to a Civic Reception in Hull. The journey took her along streets that were decked with bunting and signs saying “welcome home Johnnie” and pavements packed with cheering crowds standing 12 deep. Many of the crowd had been waiting for hours to catch a glimpse of a woman who had achieved a celebrity status on a par with any Hollywood film star.
Amongst the crowds souvenir sellers did a roaring trade. The Hull Daily Mail reported that the items for sale included “Jason as a cardboard toy for kiddies, Jason as a penny brooch for flappers, Jason as a celluloid plaything for infants, Amy as a ‘kewpie’ doll, wearing her plane as a sash, Amy ‘s photo on a lapel-button,” and “Amy on the cover of the route programmes” some of these items would in later years find themselves in the Sewerby Hall collection alongside brooches, badges and souvenirs given to Amy herself.
At the Civic Reception, Amy sat in the chair once used by Queen Victoria to listen to the various speeches in her honour. Sir Arthur Atkins speaking on behalf of the mercantile community of the city said he hoped that Hull would become “the principle airport of the United Kingdom” while Councillor Thielmann, on behalf of the women of Hull, said that Amy had proved that “no girl need now feel constrained by convention to hold back the best that is in her.” Amy was presented with a silver casket containing a copy of the council’s resolution of congratulations and a silver globe, both of which are on display alongside Amy’s CBE.
After the reception Amy went home. Crowds had gathered outside her house and chanted “We want Amy” but as Amy walked back in through her front door she recorded later that it all felt like it had been a dream and that she had never been away at all.